Sport boards, including skateboards, caster boards, vigorboards, waveboards, streetboards, brakeboards, flowboards, freeboards and variants thereof, typically involve riding a board on wheels along streets, in skateparks, sidewalk railings, stair banisters, empty pools, pool-like structures, and the like. Many of these facilities, whether formally for board sports or not, have hard surfaces. Accordingly, it is advisable to wear protective head and extremity gear. Nonetheless, there is potential for injuries sustained when a board rider, also referred to herein as a rider, loses contact with their board and falls on the hard surfaces.
Accordingly, there are many different sport board training apparatuses available to new riders or more experienced riders advancing their skills or technique. One class of training apparatuses includes those that have a fulcrum member for practicing balance while rocking back and forth on a board. A rider using this type of device trains his balance by staying on the board throughout the training session while moving his board and body in different ways. Examples of this type of apparatus include U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,748B2 (Tollner), which shows a device that can operate in ramp, teeterboard and rail grinding modes, U.S. Pat. No. 7,357,767B2 (Tsai) relating to a balance board with a moveable fulcrum, U.S. Pat. No. 7,614,987B2 (Guadagno) also relating to a balance board, and US 2013310235A1 (Carr) teaching a board that, in use, is attached to three suspension members that transition from compressed to extended positions as the rider applies more weight to one section of the board.
Beyond balance techniques, many board sports involve so-called tricks, where the rider manipulates the board, while moving and often at several feet above ground level, so as to lose contact with the board temporarily. Such tricks include, without limitation, ollies, flip tricks such as kickflips, 360 flips, double kickflips, triple kickflips, and the like.
For example, in a half-pipe skateboard ramp, a rider will create momentum to vertically climb the side of the half-pipe and then flip the board with his feet to transition to a descent of the half-pipe. At the time of conducting the trick maneuver, the rider is typically not in contact with the board and both board and rider are airborne above the top edge of the half-pipe. The objective is to re-contact the board with a proper foot placement to travel downwardly on the near-vertical face of the half-pipe. If a rider does not make proper re-contact with the trick board, he could be injured. It will therefore be understood by those familiar with the sport that it can be difficult to learn a new trick and the proper placement of one's feet on the board after being airborne to ensure a safe ride on the board back down to ground level. Riders often learn new tricks by repeatedly falling until they perfect the technique. Accordingly, other apparatuses have been developed specifically for practicing such trick maneuvers.
To that end, another class of training devices includes US 20130196299A1 (Marroquin) relating to a strap that is mounted around the board and provides a handle for the board rider while the rider does an aerial move, for example, on a half-pipe.
And yet another class of training apparatuses includes U.S. Pat. No. 6,196,558B1 (Simon), which describes an apparatus for practicing aerial snowboard maneuvers in which a trampoline is suspended in a frame. A snowboarder is secured to his snowboard by a pair of shoe straps and then practices jumping on the trampoline while attached to his snowboard. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,942,487B2 (Corbalis) illustrates a deck suspended within a frame by elastic cords, the deck having a rotational bearing system connected to the center of both the sport board and the deck, for swiveling a sport board in a plane parallel to the suspended deck.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,929,478B1 (Spencer et al) describes a frame structure for suspending a sports board in much the same manner as swing. It appears that the rider holds on to the swing ropes to practice moving the board hanging from those ropes. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,932,710B1 (Hartin) teaches a board swing with an upper grab bar, which allows the rider to move the board within the arcuate trajectory of the swing.
While these apparatuses give the board rider some sensation of aerial movements, the trick board is prohibited from moving in a manner as would be experienced in actual use, for example, at the top of a half-pipe or other structure.
In a manner similar to practicing a trick by holding on to railing alongside a sidewalk, U.S. Pat. No. 8,585,559B1 (Shannon) and U.S. Pat. No. D651677S (Shannon) illustrates a set of parallel bars having an unobstructed space between the bars for practicing tricks therebetween. With this apparatus, the skateboard is free to travel outside the space between the bars, which may be inconvenient during a training session.
There is a need for a trick board training apparatus that provides some control of the trick board to stay within the training space, while also allowing the board to move in a manner that more closely replicates its movement in actual use.